Intro

If you haven't heard yet, Shur'tugal.com has been doing monthly Q & A sessions with Christopher Paolini.

Story

With some questions, he answers fully, such as when a user asked, "On page 530 in Brisingr, Saphira refers to Thorn as "stunted-thoughts-red-scales-Thorn." Is she simply insulting him, or does she mean that his actual mind has been harmed by his magically rapid growth? And, if that is the case, how would Saphira know? Has she communicated with Thorn?"

Paolini replied, saying, "Dragons don’t tend to fight with their minds the way that humans, or say, elves do. They can certainly attack with their minds if they want—which their cousins, the Fanghur, do when hunting—but, for the most past, dragons prefer to fight with their teeth, tail, claws, and fire. . . . My thought, then, was that when Eragon and Murtagh spoke together after their duel on the Burning Plains and also before their fight in Brisingr, Saphira and Thorn would have had some mental contact, if only out of sheer curiosity. They wouldn’t have been able to resist tasting the flavor of the other’s consciousness. Moreover, Saphira and Thorn would have had a great deal of mental contact during the times they, and their Riders, were engaged in telepathic combat. Even though both sides would have been guarding their own thoughts jealously, it would have been impossible not to sense something about your opponent during such a fierce and intimate clash."

However, another when another user asked, "If a dragon hatches for a person, what happens if someone else touches it before that person?"

Paolini only said, "Complications."

So maybe Paolini hasn't really thought of the answer, or it relates to the last book, who's release date has not yet been determined.